LAHORE: The phase-I of the Raiwind Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Improvement Project has been completed, paving the way for launching work on the phase-II of the road project that is likely to start by the end of this month.

Completed by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, who also heads the LDA’s governing body as chairman, will inaugurate the phase-I on Saturday (today).

“The CM wanted to launch a project focusing on rehabilitation and improvement of infrastructure, especially roads connecting Raiwind and adjoining towns and major semi-urban and rural areas. Moreover, he was also of the view that since the Raiwind hosts two major religious events (of Tableeghi Jamaat) every year, the roads leading to the venue must be in a good condition for a trouble-free travel,” LDA Chief Engineer Asrar Saeed explained while talking to Dawn on Friday.

Sharing detail, Mr Saeed said the LDA first identified various roads connecting four major roads, including Lahore-Raiwind Road, Raiwind Sundar Road, Raiwind-Manga Road and Raiwind-Kasur Road. It prepared the project’s PC-I (Phase-I and II) worth over Rs1.3 billionn under which it recommended to rehabilitate Raiwind Road and some other roads leading to the Tableeghi congregation venue.

CM to inaugurate phase-I today; phase-II likely to start by month’s end

The first road rehabilitated at a cost of Rs380m connects Raiwind Bypass, followed by Rs440m Pajjian-Sundar road (8km), Raiwind-Pajjian bypass (12km) and Raiwind bypass-Tableeghi Ijtimah (5.5km) and a small rural road connecting the venue worth Rs260m.

A couple of the aforementioned roads have also been lit with LED lights.

In phase-II, the LDA chief engineer said, a major graveyard adjacent to Ijtimah venue would be walled with rehabilitation of pathways and a couple of small roads near Jia Bagga Station, Raiwind bypass and Pajjian.

“Rehabilitation of a stretch of main Raiwind Road will be done by the Communication & Works Department,” the official added.

He said the LDA was also working on some other road rehabilitation projects on which the work would begin soon.

On the other hand, a spokesman for the LDA said, in a statement, on Friday the CM would inaugurate the Raiwind Road Infrastructure Development Project on November 19, Saturday (Today) at 1pm.

Meanwhile, a team of the LDA’s directorate of estate management (private housing schemes) demolished illegally-constructed buildings in various private housing schemes. The schemes included Pak Arab Housing Scheme, Pearl Housing Scheme, Takbeer Villas and an unknown land subdivision scheme having no title or name.

LAND RETRIEVED: A team of the city administration, led by Raiwind Assistant Commissioner Hamid Rasheed, launched an operation in the Khudpur area of Sundar and retrieved 70 kanal state land worth millions from the land grabbers.

The team also confiscated various goods, placed there by the land grabbers and dispatched them to the respective town office in four trucks, according to a spokesman.

LWMC: The Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) sought explanation from its two officers for not making appropriate cleanliness arrangements in their areas.

The explanation was called by LWMC MD Ali Anan Qamar during his visit to various parts of the city.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2022